Dec 23, 2011

Funny little spot for Snickers by BBDO, with a focus group of sharks deciding that "Steve" tasted better because he had just eaten a Snickers Peanut Butter Squared bar. Well executed with strong art direction and CGI / 3D animation picking up on the sharks' little nuanced mannerisms. The result is a dark, macabre humored ad which works.

What if every appliance we used ran on gas powered engines? TBWA/Chiat/Day promotes this idea and in the process makes the all electric Nissan Leaf stand out. Interesting art direction in the details of the gas powered mechanisms which help convey a bleak and choked vision of the future.

Launched at Super Bowl XLV, W+K kept this two-minute manifesto ad for Chrysler under wraps before its debut. The ad not only sells Chrysler but repositions Detroit and the American automotive industry with its "imported from Detroit" tag. One of the two featured Super Bowl ads featuring Detroit's own "8 Mile" rapper, Eminem.

This touching commercial for Google's Chrome browser. Originally ninety seconds but also in shorter formats, this narrative sequence follows the birth of a daughter, Sophie, with a father documenting her life with photo images, videos, letters and stories. Using many of Google's online software apps (Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube etc), the father forms a digital scrapbook which he hopes to share with her "someday". Works on an emotional level.

A real crowd-pleaser and cheeky little number from Deutsch launched just before Super Bowl XLV weekend and will win a swag of awards. Accompanied by John Williams' Imperial March", our little Darth Vader is trying to use the force to manipulate objects around the house. Dad comes to his aid with a little help from the VW Passat's remote starter. Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. Outtakes here.

Dec 20, 2011

Hot on the heels of other fallen dictators and terrorist leaders who have recently died, we have the passing of North Korea's "Dear Leader" seeing out the year (although there is still about a week and half left this year for Ahmadinejad, Mugabe or Castro if they want to join the list).

2008 saw a volley of ad rockets fired by Amnesty International against North Korea's supreme leader as well as others.

Contrapunto BBDO used the fly on the nose (using Amnesty's logo) as a symbol and visual metaphor for human rights abuses which is as plain as the nose on their face, right in front of these leaders' eyes and yet never quite visible to them.

The campaign from LINs in Malaysia is not quite as clear. It uses the recent optical illusion meme of staring at a point (in this case a red crosshair mark) for several minutes and then looking at a white surface to reveal a face illusion. These directions aren't given in the ad and therefore assumed that people know what to do when viewing it. Also there is a tenuous link between this and the ad's message ("See no evil?") which may have been somewhat lost in translation (?).

The final ad here, by TBWA Paris, is the most clear and powerful (and also featured in my Gaddafi blog post).

Benetton's recent "UNHATE" campaign, was able to manufacture a final kiss (kiss of death?) between Kim and South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. This was an interesting campaign featuring several adversarial world leaders in intimate positions.

Tyrannybook, a digital app designed and implemented by Leo Burnett Iberia in for Amnesty International Portugal in 2010, This was a social network (which has since been discontinued) dedicated to the surveillance of some of the most tyrannical world leaders that violate human rights.

Modelled on the look and aesthetics of Facebook, both users and the organization can update leaders' profiles on their most recent abuses. Users could also link up as allies and participate in group discussions, exchange points of view and discuss current events.

While this app has now expired, it may have been a foretelling of the role Facebook would play in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising through the Middle East.

With Kim Jong-il kicking the bucket, advertisers now have one less dictator to use in their messages. 2011 has been a terrible year for oppressive global leaders.